Blood and Friendship
by Cookie Master's Apprentice
Summary: He was just a boy, Toothless reasoned, with a charming type of blood that smelled of sweetness and the ocean. And he was just in his reach. So WHY couldn't Toothless treat him like any other human boy he has seen before? T for safety. Read and review!


_How to Train Your Dragon doesn't belong to me.

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**Blood and Friendship**

"Ow!"

Toothless looked up from his dinner at the quiet exclamation, green eyes narrowing. It hadn't been the first time he heard that exclamation. The human hatchling who had shot him down, rescued him, given him back his ability to fly and so much more, although not necessarily "clumsy", wasn't that careful either, and most of the evenings when Hiccup went to see Toothless, he was often tired to the bones from dragon training, although these days the strain had lessened due to the observations Hiccup made on Toothless and then used it on the dragons in the arena. But he still hurt himself now and then, tripping, slipping and all kinds of bruising accidents.

It was funny how Toothless felt his stomach give an unpleasant squeeze every time the hatchling fell or hurt himself in general. He'd grown into really caring for the boy from Thor knows when, as a friend and not just a mean to take to the sky again, and even though the dragon was still in denial, he found the reasons he gave himself to excuse his feelings for Hiccup become less and less real. They were just that: excuses.

As Toothless turned, he smelled a sweet, inviting scent that often belonged to a dying prey coming from the kneeling figure of the brunette Viking-with-a-brain, as surprising as that sounded. Hiccup's back was turned, so Toothless couldn't see anything going on in front of him, but he just needed to pick himself up a few more inches from the half-crouch he was in and he could see well.

Hiccup was holding out his left hand, hissing slightly, and Toothless could see that a large cut stretched from one end of the palm to the other, oozing blood rapidly. With an alarmed growl, Toothless realized that the sweet smell was Hiccup's blood.

"Don't worry, Toothless. It's just a minor cut," Hiccup, noticing his dragon's gaze, told him with a smile. But Toothless wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. He was more focused on the bleeding hand.

If it hadn't been Hiccup and had been another human, Toothless would no doubt had him for dinner right there and then without a second thought. The smell of blood, of that blood, was mesmerizing. Sure, Toothless had been responsible for some Viking kids going missing in the forests, but…

But this is Hiccup, and that made all the differences, and it put a strict barrier on the Night Fury's more natural, wilder instincts. Partnering up with a human means no eating human, simple as that, and that means not eating your human either.

"Er, Toothless?" Hiccup asked, noticing his dragon's gaze was strained on the bleeding hand, which somehow, he still wasn't able to stop the blood flow. And _Thor_ does it hurts.

The Night Fury shook his head to chase away the thought and changed his gaze to Hiccup's face again, now a bit scrunched up with the pain, and silently, the dragon stood to walk over to the boy and leaned down on Hiccup's hand, nudging his other hand that was holding the injured limp tightly.

"You want me to move my hand?" Hiccup blinked at the strange request, but obliged. As soon as he did, the Night Fury bent closer, hesitated for a second, then started licking the wound clean.

Hiccup gasped as the wet tongue touched his wound and wiping away all the blood, effectively stopping the bleeding as well. Dragon saliva had a high quality of clotting wounds and healing skins, but dragon skin made it stink less. This was a human, and human skin wasn't that tough or near that durable and to Hiccup, it felt like boiling water was poured over his palm, and he started to let out a half-hiss, but then held it back with gritted teeth and tightly-clammed lips.

Still, it did its job. The bleeding stopped moments after Toothless started licking, but the dragon didn't stop. He kept licking up the dried blood and only stopped when Hiccup's palm was clean, and then he pulled away abruptly.

The blood did taste good, and Toothless found himself liking it. He had almost sunken his teeth into his rider's palm for more of it when he realized what he was doing, and he hastily pulled back, his eyes wide.

"Thanks, buddy," Hiccup was smiling up at him, reaching out a palm but did not touch him, inviting him to make the first move. He was holding up his right palm, and after another moment of slight reluctance, Toothless pressed his snout again that palm and lied down next to him, circling his rider with his tail.

With another smile, Hiccup turned back to his work, his back once again turned and out of the dragon's sight, but Toothless saw him look at his left hand that now had a thin red line on it thoughtfully for a second before turning to look at Toothless again. The dragon's heart beat faster than before. Did he know?

For some reason, Toothless didn't want Hiccup to know that he thirsted for his blood – it was good, but if the human knows that, he would no doubt fear Toothless. It might have just been that Hiccup was the only person who knew how to help Toothless fly, or it might be something else. Who knows?

Instead, Hiccup merely gave that strange crooked smile of his and turned to finish up whatever he was working on, this time reminding himself to be more careful.


End file.
